barraxII

The Accord Coupe is a sharp looking car. And, since I'll be looking for a replacement for my '01 Aurora soon, I may take a spin in the sedan. We have a '97 that's still rock solid and handles wonderfully. If the new one manages to keep that level of driving engagement in the larger size (large enough to replace an Aurora), it might be a contender.

As much as I'd like to see such a car on the streets, I doubt very much that there's a business case for a $50,000+ Pontiac. If you notice new car prices, the trend is going in the other direction. The G8 GT isn't starting at under $30k because GM is allergic to money. Look at how many new cars are coming to market at less than $25,000. They see that the average American doesn't have the buying power they had just afew years ago. This is not the time to gamble GM's declining market share on exotic cars without exotic pedigree's.

The Fiero (gorgeous as it was, especially Gt with its V-6 and flying buttresses) has been replaced by the Solstice. I don't think Pontiac has room in the lineup for both and with the emphasis on platform sharing to cut engineering costs, I doubt there's a business case for a new mid engine Pontiac.

Actually, according to copyright law, it wouldn't be stealing. If you make a design variant of a GM car, they automatically own all legal rights to the work. I found that out the hard way when I sent some sketches to Pontiac back in '84. I was unhappy with the bland looks of the first iteration of the Third gen(?) TransAm and sent some ideas for spiffing it up. Being a young, naive guy, I asked only for a new TA as compensation. J Michael Losh responded and said he liked my sketches and encouraged me to apply for a position at Pontiac's design studio, but, since Firebird and TransAm are GM properties, the sketches were legally theirs as soon as I sent them. :-(They did use some of my ideas (or I happened to have some of the same ideas they had already created) so I felt vindicated when I started to see some of them in production. My fiancee was dead set against living in Michigan so I never followed up on the invitation to apply. Girls and cars don't mix.

This competition's original deadline was November 6th. Over two weeks ago, with no reference from the mod about an extention. The previous contest Kappa II has not had voting results posted although the deadline for voting was, what, six weeks ago (?). Is it just me, or has the Sketch Competitino section been abandoned?

This is a design project to update a vehicle based on a design from the 50's. Updating a retro model is never easy. If it looked contemporary it wouldn't be a proper HHR update.

Here's my entry. I tried to post it a few days ago, but my user account got deleted or something. My email address changed, so maybe that caused the problem. Anyway, I had to create a whole new account, so it got delayed a bit. speaking of delays, is Fly ever going to post the results of the Kappa II voting?